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Man United or City? Who Should Milinkovic-Savic join if he leaves Lazio

03 October at 12:35

If you are a fan of Serie A and more specifically Lazio than you would have surely heard the name Sergej Milinkovic- Savic (or SMS for short), Born in Lleida just a hundred miles west of Barcelona. The players has sport written in his genes as his mother one of the best basketball players in the former Yugoslavia, while his father Nikola Milinkovic played football professionally in various countries including: Serbia, Spain, Portugal and Austria. As such it was expected that Sergej would follow either one of his parent’s footsteps.

Blessed with a foreboding height of 6 ft. 3” Milinkovic-Savic could have easily gone into either sports that his parents played in, but ended up playing the beautiful game. Milinkovic is hardly a string bean either, the midfielder is considered an enforcer in the middle of the park and is able to harry opponents and intimidate them give up the ball at will. Is he a defensive midfielder? Certainly not but he is akin to a box to box midfielder in the vein of a Keane or Scholes. Despite his preference for the physical side of the game, he is technically astute when carrying the ball, as he is able to dribble past midfielders and defenders with ease.

Furthermore he favours more attacking style to his game over purely defending in the middle of the park. As such he is able to surge into the attacking side of their park, and is equally at ease linking up with overlapping full backs or wingers. To his credit he is an intelligent footballer, who possess energy and enjoys running at players. In addition to this he averages 2.1 tackles per game and is able pivot where needed to instigate a counter attacking move. According to Squawka A further look into his stats from last season he scored 4 goals, 7 assists, created 40 chances, shot accuracy of 40% and finally won 53% of his duels. Impressive stats for a 22 year old who is only getting better. This season he has already bettered his pass accuracy by 7%, his shots by 10% and a goal within 6 games.

United or City? Which club would suit him best?

The 22 year old is highly rated in both Italy and England with a value reported to be in the region of 70m euros. The player is consistently improving in Italy and under Simone Inzaghi has become a mainstay in the midfield where he has grown.
If SMS is to move to one of the Manchester clubs he must choose wisely given the quality and talent available at both clubs. At United he would face stern competition from Felliani, Matic and Paul Pogba for a similar positon. He would give all three some stern competition for a place in the starting line-up but United may not be keen to divulge such a large cash sum when they have already invested heavily in that department. Additionally he would need to earn the trust of Mourinho who is well known to use players he believes are well versed in his methods and style of play. Take into account the time it took Mkhitaryan to start to play last season and he was considered a bona fide star.

Manchester City and Pep Guadiola seems to be the better choice of the two. Firstly a few of their stars are aging and will need to be replaced. Fernandinho has been a reliable servant, but could do with a younger, more energetic midfielder in the vein of SMS. Whereas Yaya Toure, and David Silva are getting older. Conversely despite his quality İlkay Gündoğan is constantly injured and isn’t reliable especially given the team is competing on four fronts. For SMS the chance to play alongside these veterans as well as De Bruyne who would actually allow SMS to roam from the middle with his delightful vision would be a sight of beauty. Compile that with Bernado Silva and the pace of Sterling/Sane on the wings. Secondly he would suit Pep’s desire to play a creative brand of football and entertain at the same time, something the former Barcelona coach values immensely.

Overall he could go to either club but he would be at home at City and could replace some aging legs in future seasons to come.